Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo has a word with players in the third period as the Minnesota Wild play the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 5 of their Western Conference quarterfinal game of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at United Center in Chicago, IL., on Thursday, May 9, 2013. Wild lost 5-1. (Pioneer Press: Ben Garvin)

Thursday was turning into Friday as Wild forward Zach Parise finally stood up from his stall in the visitors’ locker room at the United Center in Chicago, just a stone’s throw from the Blackhawks’ muted celebration down the hall.

Parise, still unshowered, described the Wild’s season-ending loss to the Blackhawks as “frustrating” and “disappointing.”

His teammates were more descriptive after Thursday night’s 5-1 loss in Game 5 of the first-round playoff series.

“Everybody just feels sick to their stomach,” Matt Cullen said.

Next question: What now?

General manager Chuck Fletcher and coach Mike Yeo will speak at a news conference Saturday, a good sign both will be back next season.

That leaves the goalie situation as the franchise’s top priority for 2013-14. Niklas Backstrom is 35 and an unrestricted free agent, and as well as Josh Harding played in the playoffs, he is battling multiple sclerosis and has never been the No. 1 goalie for an entire season. That position would seem in line for some changes.

The rest of the team is expected to remain intact.

“If you want to look at it objectively, there’s been a lot of improvement in our organization and our team, and I feel we’re going in the right direction,” Yeo said after Thursday’s loss.

At one point after the game, Parise and fellow forward Jason Pominville were the only two players still at their stalls. Both were seated, visibly distraught, looking ahead. Their eyes didn’t move, their expressions didn’t change.

The duo represented the Wild’s new-found emphasis on finding scoring over the past nine months.

But in the first season with Parise and Ryan Suter, and after acquiring Pominville at the trade deadline, the Wild’s season felt a bit like a failure despite the organization’s first playoff appearance in five years — not because the team lost to the Blackhawks, but because of their late-season collapse that forced them into an opening-round meeting with the Blackhawks.

“You try to make the most out of it, but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that,” Pominville said. “At the same time I think it’s a big step for the organization to be in the postseason. It’s been a little while. Hopefully a lot of guys learned from this experience.”

After an incredible run in March, the Wild and their fans had their sights set on a division championship, or at the very least a No. 6 seed and a first-round series against the beatable Vancouver Canucks.

Instead, Minnesota went 5-8-1 in April and had to win on the final day of the regular season just to make the playoffs. Their reward: a five-game beating administered by the best team in the NHL.

Expectations were never that the Wild would win the Stanley Cup in their first season of the Parise-Suter era. But fans wanted to see a competitive team in the playoffs, perhaps even a first-round win at one point.

“It’s hard to look at the positives right now,” Jason Zucker said. “But it was definitely something I think we can learn from.”

In April, Backstrom began to look worn out. He was in net for 27 of the final 28 games of the regular season. At times, the defense in front of him was poor. And other times, the Wild couldn’t find a way to score.

For the Wild to join the elite teams, they need a No. 1 goalie, which may or may not be Backstrom. And they could use another goal-scorer. Finding such things isn’t easy, especially for a team with such little cap space.

The good news is, the Wild have plenty of young talent and players with bright futures.

Charlie Coyle (21), Zucker (21), Mikael Granlund (21), Marco Scandella (23) and Jonas Brodin (19) all contributed this season. And the leadership is in place with Parise and Suter. So if the Wild are unable to upgrade the roster in the offseason, they will see results as the young guys progress.

Chad Graff joined the Pioneer Press in April of 2013 -- long enough to cover three straight Wild playoff exits at the hands of the Blackhawks -- after working for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe. He's lived in California and Texas, but most recently spent a decade in New Hampshire. He watched New England fans celebrate seven championships in his time there, yet somehow his only sports allegiance lies with Nebraska football.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

It was clear early on that the Gophers women’s basketball team was in for a physical game against Army. Minnesota didn’t seem to mind all the hands, elbows and hips directed its way — the Gophers play in the Big Ten, after all — and earned a 70-52 victory over the Black Knights on Thursday night at Williams Arena. “I...

Top-seeded Concordia-St. Paul will make its ninth appearance in the NCAA Division II national semifinals after defeating No. 8 American International in three sets Thursday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Golden Bears (33-2), who won 25-6, 25-16, 25-13, will face No. 5 Lewis at 7:30 p.m. Friday. No. 6 Alaska-Anchorage and No. 2 Palm Beach...

TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors pushed aside the Minnesota Timberwolves — again. With Toronto down 95-94 with 8:46 left, DeRozan and Lowry keyed a 17-4 Raptors run that took the game away from the youthful Timberwolves. Toronto eventually pulled out a 124-110 victory, handing Minnesota its 13th straight loss at Air Canada Centre. “We just...

Members of the Missouri Tigers volleyball team are ready to have about 5,500 people rooting against them Friday night at 7:15 p.m. when they take on Minnesota’s Golden Gophers in the first round of the NCAA volleyball Minneapolis regional. “We’ve competed against a Big Ten team (Purdue, whom 27-5 Missouri defeated to advance to the regional semifinal) and that wasn’t a...

Unafraid of introducing his players to advanced statistics, Gophers coach Richard Pitino routinely tells his squad where they stand among college basketball’s top teams in stats not included in a box score. He prints out charts that combine traditional and advanced statistics, discusses them with players at practice and has an assistant track them during games to help with adjustments....

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was optimistic punt returner Marcus Sherels will be able to play Sunday at Jacksonville, which would be a boost to a special-teams unit that struggled in several phases in last week’s loss to Dallas. Sherels has missed three of the past four games because of injury, including the previous two. Adam Thielen and Cordarrelle Patterson assumed...